Hair roller and clip attachment therefor



' Feb. 17, 1970 A. c., PYOMARO HAIR"ROLLER AND CLIP ATTACHMENT THEREFbRFiled June 15, 196'? FIG./

INVENTOR. ANTHONY COSMO POMARO BY /4401!)- W ATTORNEY United StatesPatent 3,495,602 HAIR ROLLER AND CLIP ATTACHMENT THEREFOR Anthony CosmoPomaro, 222 Bay 41st St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11214 Filed June 13, 1967, Ser.No. 645,720 Int. Cl. A45d 2/00 U.S. Cl. 13240 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE A cylindrical thin walled hair roller is provided with a hairclip retained within the interior of the roller by means of resilientlyretaining means such as an elastic band. During use, the clip is pulledfrom the roller interior against the elastic band and is then placedover the wall of the roller.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This inventionrelates generally to hair styling devices and is concerned particularlywith an improved hair roller having a hair clip housed and securedtherein.

Description of the prior art In recent years, women have resorted to theuse of hair rollers for the purpose of setting or styling theircoiffures. In this process, which may be performed either in the home orin a beauty parlor, a portion of hair, which may either be wet or dry,is placed securely around the external surface of a generally thinwalled cylindrical roller, open at each of its ends. To maintain thehair in place about the roller, the woman then places a resilient hairclip over the hair and the wall of the roller. In a typical hair settingoperation, this procedure is repeated between ten and fifteen timesdepending on the length of hair, and the type of hair style the woman isattempting to achieve.

During each operation, the user, after having wrapped the hair about theroller must reach into a container where the clips are stored, pick outa single clip, and then place the clip over the side wall of the rollerand the hair.

An obvious disadvantage of the known prior art devices is that the usermust reach out with one hand,

sometimes blindly, and select one clip from a large number of entangledclips, while simultaneously maintaining the hair over the roller withthe other hand.

Furthermore, the loosely assembled clips, which are generally storedseparately from the rollers, tend to be misplaced. When, during asetting operation, the clip falls from the users hand, as often occurs,the user then must either return to the assortment of clips to once moreextricate a clip, or in the alternative, she must grope with her freehand on the floor to recover the dropped clip. I

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, a general object of thisinvention to provide a hair roller and clip combination whicheffectively overcomes the deficiencies of the known devices describedabove.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a hair roller andclip arrangement wherein the clip cannot become separated from the hairroller.

It is a more specific object of this invention to provide a hair rollerhaving a hair clip resiliently retained therein.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a hair roller andclip arrangement which permits greater ease of use, and which is alsorelatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture.

3,495,602 Patented Feb. 17, 1970 ice In accordance with these and otherobjects, the present invention provides a thin walled cylindrical hairroller having at least one clip housed and retained within the BRIEFDESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The subject matter which is regarded as myinvention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in theappended claims. My invention, however, both as to its organization andmethod of operation, together with further objects and advantagesthereof, may best be understood by reference to the followingdescription of a preferred embodiment thereof taken in connection withthe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a hair roller according to my invention,with one of the hair clips being shown in the use position;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section taken along line 22 in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a transverse section taken along line 33 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the preferredembodiment shown in the drawings, the device comprises a hollowgenerally cylindrical, thin walled roller 10. The outer surface ofroller 10 is made substantially smooth so as to facilitate the windingof hair thereon. A plurality of axially aligned holes 12 is provided inroller 10 to permit the passage of air therethrough when the hair isbeing dried as, for example, by means of warm air emitted from a hairdryer.

Roller 10 may have any desired size, but is generally between one-halfinch and two inches in diameter. The roller 10 is preferably formed frommolded plastic, and may have striated portions 14 formed at either endthereof.

Three symmetrically arranged radial walls or ribs 16,

18 and 20 project from the interior of roller 10 and are preferablymolded integral with the roller 10. As seen best in FIG. 2 wall 18 has arestraining notch 22 at each of its ends, and a pair of symmetrical,substantially equal length sloping sections 24, joined by a horizontalcentral section 26. It will be understood, however, that each radialwall 16, 18 and 20 should be substantially identical in form.

The interior of roller 10 is adapted to receive a pair of oppositelyarranged and axially aligned clips 28' disposed in end-to-end fashion,and joined together by an elastic band 30. Elastic band 30 may be madeof rubber or any other suitable material which can be extensivelystretched, and which will return to its original length once thestretching force has been removed.

As the clips 28 are usually substantially identical in design, only onewill be described herein. Clip 28, also preferably formed of a plasticof similar substance, is formed from a pair .of coaxially arranged,substantially frusto-conical members 32 and 34 secured to one another byany suitable adhesive. Of course, members 32 and 34 could readily beformed of a single molded unit if so desired. It will be noted that theslope of member 34 corresponds to the slope of sloping section 24 ofwalls 16, 18 and 20. This will assure that the clip 28 will be r snuglyreceived within the interior of roller as shown in FIG. 2.

Outer member 34 has a circular flange 36 which is adapted to fit withinnotch 22 when clip 28 is in the non-use or rest position, illustrated bythe right hand clip in FIG. 2. Member 34 is further provided with threesymmetrically arranged resilient fingers 38, adapted to fit firmly overthe wall of roller 10 when the clip 28 is in the use or hair settingposition. This position is illustrated by the left hand clip in FIG. 2.It will be noted that the spacing between fingers 38 and the portion ofmember 34 is just slightly greater than the thickness of the wall ofroller 10 to insure, along with the resiliency of finger 38, that finger38 will press firmly against the .outer surface of roller 10 and thehair when the clip 28 is placed in its use position.

Member 32 is provided with an axial bore 40, and a recess 42 is formedin the wall thereof. One end of elastic band 30 extends through bore 40and is secured by means of a suitable adhesive within recess 42. Clips28 is further provided with a knurled knob 44, which preferably extendsaxially beyond the ends of roller 10 as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2.

When the roller is not in use, both clips 28 are housed within theinterior of roller 10 as shown in FIG. 1. The elastic band 30 urgesclips 28 inwardly towards the center of the interior of roller 10.Further inward motion of clips 28 is prevented by flanges 36 abuttingagainst the walls of notch 22 to retain the clips 38 in their restposition, as indicated previously.

In use, a portion of hair is wrapped around the outer surface of theroller 10, with the clips each being in their rest position. When asufficient amount of hair is around the roller, it is then necessary toclip the hair to roller surface. For this purpose, the user grasps oneof the clips 28 by the knob 44 and pulls the clip outwardly and axiallyagainst the restraining force exerted by elastic band 30. The clip 23 ispulled until it is completely clear of the confines of the rollerinterior, at which time it is moved upwards. One of the resilientfingers 38 is thereupon placed .over both the hair and the wall of theroller 10. When the hair is dried and set, this operation is reversed toremove the roller from the hair. That is, the clip 28 is pulled axiallyaway until the finger 38 is free from the hair and roller, then moveddownwardly and released to permit the elastic force of band 30 to returnthe clip 28 to its rest position. It will be understood that either oneor both of clips 28 may be utilized in this manner.

It will be apparent that modifications to the embodiment of thisinvention described above will become evident to those having skill inthe art. For example, only one clip may be provided with the other endof the elastic band being secured to the interior of roller 10.Furthermore, each clip may be provided with only one resilient finger 38instead of the three disclosed in the above description. Moreover, whentwo or more fingers 38 are employed the spacing between the fingers 38and the portion of member 34 can vary. Thus the spacing of one fingercan be suitable for thick hair or alternatively to engage another rollerdisposed adjacent thereto, thus aligning the rollers parallel to eachother. The other fingers can have spacings suflicient to engage mediumor thin hair. Furthermore, the knob 44 need not extend axially at anytime beyond the ends of the roller 10. This may be desired where rollersare disposed end to end .on the head, interference due to the protrudingknobs being thereby avoided. In addition, the clip may be retainedwithin the roller by means of a compression spring arrangement, whereinan axial force on the knob releases the compression spring to expel theclip from the interior of the roller.

What is claimed is:

1. A hair styling roller comprising:

(a) a thin walled substantially cylindrical holl w roller;

(b) at least one clip means removably housed within the interior of saidroller; wherein said clip means comprises a frusto-conical member, andat least one resilient finger means extending therefrom, said fingermeans being adapted to be placed over the outer surface of said rollerwhen said clip means is removed from said roller;

( c) resilient means attached to said clip means for retaining said clipmeans within said roller, and

(d) at least one radial wall depending from the interior of the saidthin wall hollow roller, engaging said clip means in a telescopicrelationship and effective to prevent axial movement of said clip meansinwardly into said roller, wherein said radial wall comprises a slopedsection, having a slope corresponding to the slope of saidfrusto-eonical member of said clip means.

2. A hair styling roller as defined in claim 1, wherein said resilientlyretaining means are elastic means.

3. A hair stlying roller as defined in claim 1, wherein said radial wallis formed integral with said roller.

4. A hair styling roller as defined in claim 1, wherein said clip meansis provided with a circular flange secured thereto, and said clipposition maintaining means comprises a recess formed in said radial wallfor receiving said flange therein.

5. A hair styling roller as defined in claim 2, comprising a pair ofoppositely arranged clip means secured to one another by said elasticmeans.

6. A hair styling roller as defined in claim 5, wherein said clip meansare each provided with an axial bore, said elastic means comprising anelastic band extending into each of said bores and being securedtherein.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,811,973 11/1957 Pileggi er a1.3,211,753 12/1965 Zielinski 1324O FOREIGN PATENTS 953,460 11/1956Germany. 586,769 12/1958 Italy,

ANTONIO F. GUIDA, Primary Examiner JAMES W. MITCHELL, Assistant Examiner

